Improv troupe digs Devo & gin

When interviewing an improvisational
comedy troupe, you're guaranteed
to veer off topic.

A simple question about what
makes a good improviser somehow
spirals into a comparison of each
troupe member to the actors from
Full House. "Greg is totally Bob
Saget!" exclaims fourth-year music
student Megan Phillips, as her castmate
and fourth-year Ivey student
Greg Camm does a Saget-esque
eyebrow raise in bemused response.

The troupe members have one
major edge over the Full House
crew: they're actually funny. The
troupe is the six-person performing
wing of Western's Whose Improv
Is It Anyway club.

"While the [WIIIA] club is a
casual drop-in thing, the troupe is
more structured and focused on
performance," explains thirdyear
anthropology student Sean
Stoughton.

Stoughton, the WIIIA VPtroupe,
and WIIIA VP-operations
Camm selected the troupe members
with no bias toward picking
students of certain background or
with theatre or improv experience.
According to Camm, the only
major criteria was that the person
had to be a good performer.

In addition to Stoughton and
Camm, the other members are second-
year kinesiology student
Amanda Buchmayer, first-year
English/psych student Dorothy
Charach, second-year English/dramatic
arts student James McClure
and Phillips, who aside from
Camm is the only student to be on
the troupe for all four years of its
existence.

This team atmosphere is crucial
in building a cohesive improv unit.
"A good improviser makes everyone
around [him or her] look better,"
McClure says.

"You shouldn't stick to just your
own ideas. You have to be able to
adapt," Charach adds.

The troupe has been meeting
weekly since September to hone
their skills. Camm says that during
first term, it concentrated on building
basic improv skills, while the
last three months of rehearsals have
focused on stagework, sketch-writing
and even some musical improv.

Tonight's show will be a mixture
of scripted sketches and classic
improv games (e.g. Whose
Line, Dating Game) that the audience
may recognize from the
Whose Line Is It Anyway TV show
that inspired the creation of WIIIA
in 2000. Also, when Camm was
out of earshot, Phillips promised
that Camm would be performing
an erotic striptease.

Nudity aside, why should the
students come to see the troupe's
show?

"Cowardice!" Stoughton
exclaims.

"We're unlike any other kind of
entertainment Western has on campus,"
Phillips says.

"My crazy uncle Wayne will be
the opening act. He'll drink a bottle
of gin, start a story and then trail
off," McClure promises.The troupe will perform tonight at
8 p.m. in the Richard Ivey School of
Business, Rm. 1R40. The show is
free of charge.

Author:Gazette Staff

Yarr! Pirate book perfect

A History of Pirates: Blood and
Thunder on the High SeasWritten by: Nigel CawthornePublished by: Arcturus Publishing
Ltd.
240 pp., $7.99

The debaucherous pirate Capt.
Blackbeard so fervently believed
that a pirate ship should also be a
drunken ship that he wrote in his
log, "Such a day - Rum all out -
Our company somewhat sober:
Rogues aplotting - Great talk of
separation - So I'd look sharp for
a prize."

The next day, after seizing a
ship filled to the brim with booze,
Blackbeard wrote, "Such a day -
took one, with a great deal of
liquor on board, so kept the company
hot, damn'd hot, then all
things went well again."

In his defense, Blackbeard was
a bit of a drinker, but the point of
this review is not Blackbeard's
love of the hooch, but the fact it has
even been mentioned in a serious
book about the history of pirates.

On their own, pirates are historically
remembered as small bands
of sailors who roamed the high
seas in search of some booty and a
merry time. They are not, however,
remembered by the world as a dramatic
force that altered the course
of history.

But it was this debaucherous
lifestyle - filled with rum and
sword fights and ladies of ill-repute
- that inspired feelings of awe in
their contemporaries, as well as
within those of us who did not have
the benefit of being around then.

Yet while the book's raison
d'être is this hero-worship of piracy,
it oddly never makes an effort
to examine the effects any one of
the mentioned pirates had on history,
instead presenting their experiences
on an anecdotal basis.

Therein lies the strength of the
book: it's all about the raping, pillaging
and plundering pirates did,
which is precisely what we all
want to hear about.

The net result is a book that
seems more like you're actually on
a voyage with pirates as opposed to
reading a book about pirates.

Too little is known about pirates,
and this book seeks to remedy that
problem. Sure, we all know that
Henry Morgan has a brand of rum
named after him, but did you know
that despite gaining eternal buccaneer
fame for sacking Panama, he
died a penniless drunkard? In fact,
few pirates met glamorous ends -
many perished either in battle or
hanging at the end of a rope.

The more you read, more obvious
it is that a pirate's life was
never dull. Pirates found buried
treasure, spent evenings with
many-a-fine looking whore, got
into duels and spent their days on
deck getting plastered and working
on tans - at least before someone
made them walk the plank.

Author:Gazette Staff

Cool or Not Cool? Ambitious Avril Lavigne assessed

For our final Cool/Not Cool of the
year, we opened up the floor to the
students. Canadian female artist
Avril Lavigne just won three Junos,
including Best Artist of the Year.
Her singles are climbing the charts,
but can she climb her way into
haters' hearts?

"I thought she was hot when she
came out; now I'm undecided." - Sri Sivaraman,
ACS II

"I think she'd be cool if she'd let
me buy her a pink dress and some
Mary Janes and scrub the black
makeup off her eyes." - Justin Samlal,
Social Science I

COOL: 14
NOT COOL: 9
UNDECIDED: 3

Author:Gazette Staff

Celebrity Dartboard: Jason Mewes

It's officially the end of the Quick
Stop days for Jason Mewes. He
has traded in his role as Silent
Bob's compadre in order to hook
up with socialite party girl Paris
Hilton in a new film, in which he
will play a bartender.

Paris Hilton? Wait - it gets
worse. The film is a romantic
comedy, but with Paris on board,
it sounds more like a sex romp
- particularly with its unfortunate
title: Bottoms Up. They're
just asking for it.

One has to wonder how many
joints Mewes smoked in order
for this flick to have seemed like
a wise career move.

It's not that the Paris connection
will deter die-hard Kevin
Smith fans, who are predominantly
horny young guys, but
rather that it undermines any
stoner credibility Mewes had.

Author:Gazette Staff

On Disc -- Beenie Man

Beenie ManKingston to King of the Dancehall
- A Collection of Dancehall
Favorites
Virgin Records

Beenie Man is as popular as reggae/
dancehall artists come these
days. It only makes sense for him to
try cashing in on this popularity by
releasing a greatest hits album after
only three major-label albums and a
few hit singles in the United States.

But as the liner notes to
"Kingston to King of the Dancehall"
states, it's "not so much a
greatest hit collection... as it is a
selection of favorite tunes."
Accompanying the 16-track CD is
a DVD with seven music videos
and a 31-minute featurette on the
"King of the Dancehall."

The album starts off with Beenie
Man's "Who Am I," the song
that launched him to superstardom
- who can forget the line "Sim
Simma/ Who got the keys to my
Beamer?" The CD also includes
the hit "Girls Dem Sugar" and its
Neptunes remix featuring Mya.
Also included on the CD are the
hits "Romie," "Bossman" and
lesser known tracks like "Slam."

The CD has no shortage of
tracks to get booties shakin', but
it's not for everyone. When listening
to tracks in their entirety, the
beats can get pretty repetitive. The
CD is much better in small doses.
Some hardcore fans may not be
satisfied with the exclusion of
tracks like "Murderer" and "Healing,"
but it's hard to please everyone
on a compilation album.

Beenie Man has received a lot of
heat from gay activist groups about
his allegedly homophobic lyrics.
Lyrics in general are a weakness
when it comes to Beenie Man's
music. Insightful lines like, "Yuh
body shape so good/ Let me introduce
yuh to a piece a wood" will
cause people who listen to music
for a deeper meaning to shake their
heads in frustration, but the beats
will still make bodies move.

- Shawn Katuwapitiya

Author:Gazette Staff

On Disc -- Roses Are Red

Roses Are RedConversations
Trustkill Records

Although pretty much all of its
lyrics are based on rejection
("Don't say you're sorry/ I've
heard it far too many times"), pain
("You twist the knife again and
again") and loss ("Under this city
you'd find what used to be my
dreams"), Conversations is actually
a feel-good rock record.

This is the second full-length
album from Roses Are Red and the
band's first release with Trustkill.
The album mixes the angst-ridden
melodies of emo with the power
chords and energy of punk rock to
produce 10 catchy, highly hummable
tracks.

The album begins with the
energetic, fast-paced "White and
Gold," which pulls listeners in
with its intelligent and emotionally-
driven lyrics. The next track, "I
Felt I Knew Her," kicks it up a
notch with angry, Billy Talentesque
screaming.

The album succeeds based on
Vincent Minervino's ability to sing
about love and heartbreak without
sounding annoying or whiny. Just
when the album is in danger of
sounding repetitive, it changes pace
with the fifth and sixth tracks - the
edgy "I Apologize" and the purely
instrumental lament "12:34."

Conversations is a solid rock
album. Anyone who is a fan of
Taking Back Sunday, Billy Talent
- or, hell, even Bon Jovi -
should definitely check it out.

- Claire Neary

Author:Gazette Staff

On Disc -- Inhabitants

InhabitantsS/T
Drip

Tired of lyrical vomit? Need some
mellow instrumental music? Then
check out Inhabitants.

This Vancouver-based band
exceeds the expectations one
might have of a jazz band. The CD
captures a variety of human sentiments
without using any lyrics. If
you enjoy listening to synthesized
voices à la modern pop radio, you
will likely have little time for this
disc. But for adventurous music
seekers, Inhabitants may be the
band you've been waiting for.

Inhabitants puts a twist on contemporary
jazz; in fact, the band's
sound is almost alternative punk,
but with trumpets in the background.
A standout track is "Out
of the Under the," which combines
jazz with a hint of punk.